Senate Snuffs Out In-flight Smoking

September 15, 1989|By WALTER V. ROBINSON, Boston Globe

WASHINGTON -- In a major victory for the anti-smoking movement, the Senate on Thursday voted to prohibit smoking on all domestic airline flights.

The action, taken on a voice vote after tobacco supporters lost two procedural votes by lopsided margins, reflected growing concerns about the long-term health dangers to frequent fliers who do not smoke and the diminished influence of the muscular tobacco lobby.

If it becomes law, the prohibition would be by far the most punishing regulatory slap at smokers yet taken in what specialists said on Thursday is a snowballing national movement toward greater restrictions on smoking in public places.

In the end, the tobacco industry`s Senate supporters sidestepped the health issues in favor of arguments that any such prohibition would cause economic harm to thousands of small tobacco farmers.

In the Senate chamber, where smoking has long been banned, supporters of the prohibition said that growing evidence that thousands of non-smokers die annually from the effects of passive smoking makes it imperative that commercial airliners be put off limits to smokers.

``Passive smoking is a significant health hazard. You do not have to be the one holding the cigarette to suffer its tragic effects,`` said Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J., who sponsored the anti-smoking language.

By any standard, specialists in the issue said on Thursday, the vote marks a major setback for an industry whose sales are already declining at the rate of about 2 percent a year.

To become law, the Senate language must be reconciled with a provision in a House-passed appropriations bill that would make permanent a two-year experiment in which smoking on flights of two hours and under has been banned.

But with polls showing widespread public support for the total ban, and with the overwhelming sentiment in the Senate, supporters were confident that the Senate language will be adopted. President Bush, who does not permit smoking aboard Air Force One, is not expected to oppose the measure.

Such a ban is even supported by a majority of smokers, Lautenberg said.

Gary R. Miller, a spokesman for the Tobacco Institute, the industry`s lobbying arm, attributed the Senate action to effective work by ``a vocal anti-smoking minority.`` He said the industry expects the conference committee to reach a compromise short of the total ban.

The ban would take effect 95 days after it became law.

``The Senate`s action greatly strengthens our bargaining position, but we still face a tough battle in the House,`` said Rep. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., a leading House advocate of restrictions.